Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Garbage set on fire at compost yard

Special Correspondent

Pollution prevention panel plans fast on August 27 Fresh agony for residents who have been demanding shifting of the Vellalore yard as unsafe disposal posed health hazards

COIMBATORE: Tonnes of garbage in Coimbatore Corporation's compost yard at Vellalore here are ablaze again, sending smoke into the nearby housing colonies. It brought fresh agony to the residents who have been demanding that the Corporation shift the yard as unsafe disposal poses health hazards.

Even as water, brought in lorries, was used to put out the fire since Thursday morning, residents familiar with the problem pointed out that it would take at least three days for the smoke to subside.

Meanwhile, the Kurichi-Vellalore Pollution Prevention Action Committee decided to observe a fast on August 27 as part of their series of protests to press for the shifting of the yard.

Talks to no avail

The secretary, K.S. Mohan, said the residents decided to observe fast as conciliatory talks with the officials of the Corporation did not seem to yield a solution. "With no sign of a solution we are confused over whom to approach - district administration, Corporation or Pollution Control Board," he said.

"It is getting increasingly difficult for us to live here."

Corporation sources said efforts were made to put out the fire and steps being taken for a permanent solution.The civic body's waste management programme that had been initiated would provide safe methods of disposal.

The Health Department in the Corporation was on the job of eliminating inconvenience to residents from the fresh blaze on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the committee clarified that it was fighting for a just cause and had no intention of giving it a political colour. The committee faced charges of politicising the issue after the road blockade last month led by the Communist Party of India MP, K. Subbarayan. Mr. Mohan said, in a statement, that the committee "is purely a non-political" organisation to save people from diseases caused by the garbage.

This clarification had to be issued since some doubts were raised in some quarters that the committee was moving towards political parties, the statement said.

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